December 18 2010
Contraband Countdown
Celebrity has a powerful pull. While directing our last Storm towards an open brief, daring you lot to find hidden words in titles or names, most of us aimed at names. Actors. Pollies. Sports heroes. One exception was newcomer Boniface, who dwelt on a books and films, and warrants his own medal for being independent.
Two other special mentions – PRS for showing us the 3 Faces of Ted Baillieu, and xobhcnul for summarising the seven High Court judges. Though in the end, appraising over 70 entries, I have drafted a countdown, from 10 to 1 of kickass contraband. Read them, from left to right, as you travel down, and see how crafty we became at finding the smuggled goods:
Schapelle = CELL [xobchnul found a stark and simple truth in a single name]
Homer Simpson = HOON [And look dg, the word is on the fringes, making Homer ripe for an &lit container clue]
Martin Scorsese = MAIN SCORES [As SK knows, a film is only as good as its soundtrack]
Richard Morecroft = CHARMER [And he is Nib – I promise to tell him this covert property when next I see him, in real life]
Diego Maradona = EGO MAD [Coke, dummy spits, yoyo diets – SK nails el muchacho]
Shirley Strickland = SHE RAN [xobhcnul again, with a succinct bio]
Matthew Flinders = THE FINDER [PRS explores the explorer to find an epithet]
William Archibald Spooner = I AM A RIBALD ONE [Rifting the sector, Nib finds gold]
Arnold Schwarzenegger = AN OLD SHAGGER [You can take the Governator out of body-building gyms… Brilliant work, SK – and while midair too.]
Jacques Cousteau = AQUEOUS EAU [Robskee gets my smuggled tiara, for diving into fresh meridians and discovering bilingual treasure – a dazzling discovery.]
So congratz all round for finding the hidden parcels borne by some famous names. And look for a minor snowstrorm next week, before Santa hits town.
Comments
robskee — 18 December at 10:02PM
I will wear the tiara proudly, at least until next week. My favourite was DA's Laurie Oakes = LEAKS.
Nib — 19 December at 04:48PM
Jacques Cousteau was my favourite of the bunch. Bonus points for a 'q' word, number of letters and appropriate description for the French source name. Stunning. Many other great finds along the way, too.
Several of my friends were madly jealous that I shared a urinal with Richard Morecroft. :P
I think my episode airs in a night or two! Please tell me they edited out the rapping and horrendous Blitzen joke...
Nib — 19 December at 09:37PM
I was just scrolling through all of my 2010 Facebook statuses, how could I forget: "OPeRA House"
Here are some of my other statuses that you may find amusing. I say 'some'...
Digging CHILEAN MINERS out of MINERAL INCHES, each one MARCHES IN LINE outside where they will RINSE HIM CLEAN.
AW MY HOT SINUSES = HOW MANY TISSUES?
EMIRATES MELBOURNE CUP DAY: A BAD CULTURED MONEY EMPIRE
What do you mean neither contestant nor David Astle could find a 7 letter word out of ‘DEIASNPSE’? Penises! Penises! That took like 2 seconds. (Also, dispense)
36 hours until I am sharing air freshly respired from Richard Morecroft. ^_^
These past two months have had some fun date numberplay: 02-01-2010 20-01-2010, 01-02-2010. 90210, 10-02-2010… now to wait until October.
Dear mX magazine, the past three Word Scrimmages I have done have resulted in CONICAL/LACONIC, EASTERN/EARNEST and SHOOTER/HOOTERS possibilities. I demand 120 bonus points.
I got the answers 'DETAINS' and 'STAINED' for the mX Word Scrimmage. Their answer? 'DESTAIN'.
Today’s mX horoscope: Cancer- “Crabs are capricious…” Really? What have you got for Capricorn then? “Goats are cancerous…”?
Methylchloroisothiazolinone. The same people who make up 'Brangelina' portmanteaus must work for Pantene on their shampoo ingredients.
One would think the Commonwealth Games would be held somewhere that is commonly wealthy.
How is 'instalment' the UK spelling and 'installment' the US spelling? English, I am losing faith in you more and more each year.
just realised that in French, 'la petite mort' can refer to either an orgasm or cot death.
I hope Labor and the Coalition took out third party insurance.
just looked up 'information' in Microsoft Word's thesaurus: "In order, in sequence, in turn, in rank, in a row..."
The hosts of Eurovision 2010 were Nadia Hasnaoui, Erik Solbakken and Haddy N'jie. Along with the recent volcanic activity of Eyjafjallajokull and Scrabble's new rules allowing the use of proper nouns, I am gonna be kicking ass against the Year 5 kids at work tomorrow. :D
Did you hear about the female politician who joined the Sex Party? 9 months later she was in Labor.
just realised ‘STRAP ON’ is an emordnilap for ‘NO PARTS’. #howamInotamillionairepunditbynow
got pwned by 40-somethings at the SBS audition. Playing Scrabble for fun afterwards, one guy was on 110 after two moves having emptied his rack of letters. I was proud to get 2nd out of 3 that game.
Silly Mel Gibson, it's not 'pack'. The correct collective noun is 'a plantation of n*****s', 'an emancipation of n*****s' or 'a 3/5ths compromise of n*****s'.
I have so much sodium in my diet, my veins constantly sing the theme from The Good Guys commercial: Na na na na na, na na na...
just turned to the SMH puzzle section and audibly called out ‘COAGULANT!’ within a second of seeing the 9 letter Target word. Barista mopping the floor a foot away from me stopped and raised an eyebrow. *shame*
Shaun Micallef: Anagrams of ‘Calista Flockhart’. GO.
Contestant: Um…
Shaun Micallef: *vinyl scratch* Just kidding. Next segment.
Shaun Micallef: Which actress, whose name rhymes with ‘Moody Wench’, has played James Bond character ‘M’ for the last fifteen years?
Shaun Micallef: Complete the following George Costanza quote from the Seinfeld episode ‘The Marine Biologist’: “The…”
Contestant: …
Shaun Micallef: …
Shaun Micallef just mentioned Letters & Numbers on SBS. So, he totally watches it, yeah? Soon, the tables will turn. Sooooon.
can finally sleep at night knowing the difference between an endemic, a pandemic and an epidemic.